Since 2004 a memorial in Gorodeya in Belarus commemorates the approximately 1,140 Jews who were murdered during the mass shooting on July 17, 1942.
Gorodeya (Belarussian: Haradzeya, Polish: Horodziej) about 90 kilometres southwest of Minsk was first mentioned by name in 1530. At the end of the 19th century the approximately 690 Jews made up the majority of the village, in 1921 the number rose to 800. Before the war the settlement belonged to Poland and became Soviet in September 1939 according to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.
At the end of June 1941, the German Wehrmacht occupied Gorodeya after it invaded the Soviet Union. The occupation authorities set up a local auxiliary police force which later actively participated in the murder of the Jews. A few days later 15 Jews were murdered who were accused of having supported the Soviets. The remaining Jews, several hundred people, were forced to live in a ghetto consisting of a few houses in a very confined space. The ghetto was fenced off with barbed wire and strictly guarded. On July 17, 1942, members of the local auxiliary police rounded up all the Jews of the ghetto on Gorodeya's main square. Those who did not obey the order were dragged out of the houses by force. Then a German Sonderkommando (special unit) consisting of 50 members of the SS appeared. They drove the Jews near a Christian cemetery in the north of the city and shot them there. The Jewish community of Gorodeya was obliterated.
At the end of June 1941, the German Wehrmacht occupied Gorodeya after it invaded the Soviet Union. The occupation authorities set up a local auxiliary police force which later actively participated in the murder of the Jews. A few days later 15 Jews were murdered who were accused of having supported the Soviets. The remaining Jews, several hundred people, were forced to live in a ghetto consisting of a few houses in a very confined space. The ghetto was fenced off with barbed wire and strictly guarded. On July 17, 1942, members of the local auxiliary police rounded up all the Jews of the ghetto on Gorodeya's main square. Those who did not obey the order were dragged out of the houses by force. Then a German Sonderkommando (special unit) consisting of 50 members of the SS appeared. They drove the Jews near a Christian cemetery in the north of the city and shot them there. The Jewish community of Gorodeya was obliterated.
Members of the SS murdered approximately 1,140 Jews in the village of Gorodeya on July 17, 1942 with the help of the local auxiliary police. They shot the Jews in previously dug pits and buried them there. According to the report of the Soviet Commission of Inquiry, which was on site after the end of the occupation, a woman and her child managed to escape from the pit.
The Red Army liberated Gorodeya on July 4, 1944. The first memorial to remember the victims of the mass shooting was not erected until 1990. Its location was near the cemetery.
A new memorial site was inaugurated on July 18, 2004. It is located at the mass shooting site and was designed according to the plans of the architect Leonid Levin (1936–2014). The main element is a paved area imitating a destroyed Jewish home. Three twisted window arches are embedded in the façade. A 150 metre long path lined with 1,137 boulders leads to the mass grave. The number of stones corresponds to the number of murdered Jews. The stones were collected by the inhabitants of the surrounding villages. At the beginning of the path there is a memorial stone with the Belarusian inscription quoting the architect Levin as follows: »At this place on July 17, 1942 the fascists murdered 1,137 peaceful citizens of the village of Gorodeya, victims of the Holocaust«.
Leonid Lewin had participated in the Khatyn National Memorial in 1969 and in 2000 in the extension of Minsk's »Yama« memorial. The memorial in Gorodeya is considered one of the most important and most remarkable monuments to the victims of the Holocaust in Belorussia.
A new memorial site was inaugurated on July 18, 2004. It is located at the mass shooting site and was designed according to the plans of the architect Leonid Levin (1936–2014). The main element is a paved area imitating a destroyed Jewish home. Three twisted window arches are embedded in the façade. A 150 metre long path lined with 1,137 boulders leads to the mass grave. The number of stones corresponds to the number of murdered Jews. The stones were collected by the inhabitants of the surrounding villages. At the beginning of the path there is a memorial stone with the Belarusian inscription quoting the architect Levin as follows: »At this place on July 17, 1942 the fascists murdered 1,137 peaceful citizens of the village of Gorodeya, victims of the Holocaust«.
Leonid Lewin had participated in the Khatyn National Memorial in 1969 and in 2000 in the extension of Minsk's »Yama« memorial. The memorial in Gorodeya is considered one of the most important and most remarkable monuments to the victims of the Holocaust in Belorussia.
- Name
- Memorial zhertwam holokosta w Gorodeje
- Open
- The memorial is accessible at all times.